As the morning wore on, he flitted perpetually between the two rooms, watching anxiously over both patients.  He made Mrs. Grant remain with the Nurse, but either Miss Trelawny or I, generally both of us, remained with the wounded man.  We each managed, however, to get bathed and dressed; the Doctor and Mrs. Grant remained with Mr. Trelawny whilst we had breakfast.

Sergeant Daw went off to report at Scotland Yard the progress of the night; and then to the local station to arrange for the coming of his comrade, Wright, as fixed with Superintendent Dolan.  When he returned I could not but think that he had been hauled over the coals for shooting in a sick-room; or perhaps for shooting at all without certain and proper cause.  His remark to me enlightened me in the matter: 

“A good character is worth something, sir, in spite of what some of them say.  See!  I’ve still got leave to carry my revolver.”

That day was a long and anxious one.  Toward nightfall Nurse Kennedy so far improved that the rigidity of her limbs entirely disappeared.  She still breathed quietly and regularly; but the fixed expression of her face, though it was a calm enough expression, gave place to fallen eyelids and the negative look of sleep.  Doctor Winchester had, towards evening, brought two more nurses, one of whom was to remain with Nurse Kennedy and the other to share in the watching with Miss Trelawny, who had insisted on remaining up herself.  She had, in order to prepare for the duty, slept for several hours in the afternoon.  We had all taken counsel together, and had arranged thus for the watching in Mr. Trelawny’s room.  Mrs. Grant was to remain beside the patient till twelve, when Miss Trelawny would relieve her.  The new nurse was to sit in Miss Trelawny’s room, and to visit the sick chamber each quarter of an hour.  The Doctor would remain till twelve; when I was to relieve him.  One or other of the detectives was to remain within hail of the room all night; and to pay periodical visits to see that all was well.  Thus, the watchers would be watched; and the possibility of such events as last night, when the watchers were both overcome, would be avoided.

When the sun set, a strange and grave anxiety fell on all of us; and in our separate ways we prepared for the vigil.  Doctor Winchester had evidently been thinking of my respirator, for he told me he would go out and get one.  Indeed, he took to the idea so kindly that I persuaded Miss Trelawny also to have one which she could put on when her time for watching came.

And so the night drew on.

Chapter V More Strange Instructions

When I came from my room at half-past eleven o’clock I found all well in the sick-room.  The new nurse, prim, neat, and watchful, sat in the chair by the bedside where Nurse Kennedy had sat last night.  A little way off, between the bed and the safe, sat Dr. Winchester alert and wakeful, but looking strange and almost comic with the respirator over mouth and nose.  As I stood in the doorway looking at them I heard a slight sound; turning round I saw the new detective, who nodded, held up the finger of silence and withdrew quietly.  Hitherto no one of the watchers was overcome by sleep.